


come pick me up (I've landed)

by GlitterDwarf



Series: SV Prompt Fills [1]
Category: Silicon Valley (TV)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-18
Updated: 2015-06-18
Packaged: 2018-04-04 23:02:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,546
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4156254
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GlitterDwarf/pseuds/GlitterDwarf
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Prompt fill: "please come get me"</p>
<p>“Erlich, I’m taking the Aviatvan,” Richard shouted down the hall. He typed a quick “omw” and was out the door, into the car, and rushing down the freeway.</p>
            </blockquote>





	come pick me up (I've landed)

Richard frowned at his phone. There were two texts from Jared: one that said simply “please come get me,” and one that was an address. He put the address into Google Maps, which responded with a Yelp listing for an upscale restaurant about twenty minutes away.

“Erlich, I’m taking the Aviatvan,” Richard shouted down the hall. He typed a quick “omw” and was out the door, into the car, and rushing down the freeway.

Which, really, made no fucking sense, as they had not spoken to each other in over a week. It was difficult enough to find time to be in the same room together, and Jared finding a new place, fairly far away from the Hacker Hostel, with some roommates he had found on that stupid Bro2Bro app didn’t help.

Not to mention those drunk texts Richard sent, and the deafening silence that followed.

It wasn’t difficult to spot Jared when he arrived. Jared stood out in a crowd on a normal day, even with his unassuming stoop in his shoulders like he was apologizing to the world for taking up space. But now there was no missing him at all. He had his arms crossed over his chest and was slumped against the wall outside the restaurant, looking way too defeated and small, even for him. But despite this he still looked, well, fucking good. He was wearing a suit that actually fit his frame (maybe a leftover from Hooli days?), a navy that Richard thought would make his eyes look great. Jared’s hair looked a little messy, either on purpose or from hands being in it (he hoped to God it was the former). 

“Keep it together, Hendricks,” he whispered to himself as he pulled up to the curb. He hoped the obnoxiously bright colors of the van would announce his arrival–it certainly got the attention of other patrons who were shooting the car dirty looks–but apparently this wasn’t enough. He rolled down the passenger’s window.

“Uh, Jared…Jared?” he called out, tentatively. But there was no movement from his friend. “Oh, fuck, um,  _Jared_!” Still nothing.

Finally, he gave the horn a small beep, completely forgetting that the horn sound was Erlich saying “Aviato.” 

“Fuck,” he whispered to himself; everybody in the tri-state area should know where he is now, and also that he is an asshole. Thankfully, this got Jared’s attention (finally) and he was soon in the van. 

“I’m sorry,” Jared said quietly as he buckled his seatbelt and immediately turned to look out the window, now rolled up. Richard frowned, but started the car anyway and started driving.

If the silence post-texts were deafening it was nothing compared to the suffocating feeling of having Jared so close, so _fucking_  close and looking so  _fucking_  good but not even able to look at him. It wasn’t until Richard was going to exit that Jared finally spoke up.

“Oh, if it’s okay could you not take me home?”

“Oh, uh,” Richard stammered elegantly. “Sure? Sure. Where do you…do you have somewhere else you want to go?”

“Would it be okay if I slept in this car, perhaps? I can get an Uber in the morning.”

Richard laughed once, a dry, bitter sound. Apparently he wanted to be around Richard so little that he would sleep in a car rather than be in the same house.

He couldn’t stand it anymore. He pulled over to the side of the freeway and shut the car off. When he looked over Jared was finally looking at him, with big, bright eyes that looked frightened. Richard frowned and struggled with his words, wanting to be assertive but not wanting to frighten the other man. His hands just ended up flapping a bit uselessly in the air.

“Why don’t you want to be in the same  _house_  as me? You know you could totally sleep inside the house if you wanted to. No- nobody would kick you out. Is it really that hard to have to, you know, share space with me?”

Jared just shook his head, and his shoulders tensed more. It was really, really fucking heartbreaking to see, but also infuriating.

“Then why didn’t you call? Or text me back? Or acknowledge that I, you know, fucking confessed my undying love for you?”

Jared flinched, then turned his head away. It was then that Richard saw the horrifying red marks along Jared’s neck. His vision swayed and his stomach clenched; it was only by some miracle that he didn’t vomit immediately.

“Are those hickeys? Were you on a date?”

A soft, but unmistakable sound of crying from the passenger seat. This broke Richard, broke his mind and his resolve. He quickly unbuckled his seatbelt and practically lunged across the space that separated them to grasp Jared in a hug. The other man stiffened at first, but then softened and pressed into the hug. 

“Jared, I’m sorry, I’m sorry, please don’t cry, I’m sorry,” he babbled senselessly into Jared’s hair.

“No,  _I’m_  so sorry, Richard,” he whispered, and damn him for smelling good. “I’m just not good at relationships, and I don’t want you to end up getting tired of me and hating me.”

“Jared, Jared, no, I wouldn’t,” he insisted. Richard pulled back just enough to look into his friend’s eyes. “That’s dumb. You’ve cleaned up my vomit, and I’ve seen you, you know, tweaked out on adderall with no sleep. We don’t get scared of each other, that’s our  _thing_.”

Jared smiled and looked away. Even in the darkness Richard could see that he was right; the suit brought out Jared’s eyes. “You’re too kind to me, Richard.”

“No, Jared, it’s not… _you’re_  too kind to  _me,”_ Richard mumbled. “I’m– you know– _fuck_ , this…I had a lot of words planned to say, and they were good, you know, the words I was going to use. You would have liked it and understood and we were going to kiss, in my head that’s how it happened. Fuck, that’s creepy, isn’t it?”

“No, it’s sweet,” Jared said quietly. His smile was so big that his eyes were crinkling. But too quick his look darkened, and his gaze lowered. “I just have known myself much longer than you have known me, and I know you would eventually hate me. And I would rather go on disastrous dates for the rest of my life than ruin our friendship with my… _me_.”

Richard sighed and squeezed Jared’s shoulder to get his attention back. It’s not like he hadn’t had the same thoughts, but in reverse, so he couldn’t exactly lecture him on the finer points of getting over your self-loathing. 

“Okay, well. I mean, I know how you’re feeling. I was also thinking you would hate me, which is why I had to get drunk to tell you how I feel. But like, I know in my mind that we could be good, Jared. We could be really good. I don’t want to force you into anything but I think that maybe one day we could try. I would like it. But only if you want to. Because sometimes I think I will never be happy again if I don’t ever get to kiss you.” He pulled back and flapped his hands uselessly. Richard could feel the heat scorching along his cheeks, because that last part? Was really fucking out of line and too much, he was sure. He stammered a bit, turned away and laughed nervously as his hands gripped the steering wheel.

“Anyway, I should get you–well, not home, but you know, not here–”

“Richard?”

He looked over, and there was Jared again. His face was very close, and his hand was cupping Richard’s jaw. There was a beat of nervous energy, and then they were kissing. It was soft, and quiet, and  _good_ , and Richard focused very hard to hope that he could erase from Jared’s mouth any traces of whoever had been there earlier. He hoped that he could erase  _every_ body who had been there before, could make Jared happy enough that this would be his last  _first_  kiss. 

Jared pulled back but stayed close. He nuzzled their noses together, then gave Richard another small kiss, and then he was back to sitting in his seat the proper way.

“Did that make you happy?”

Richard’s laugh was like a few bubbles bursting from his chest. “I mean, kind of, but now I don’t think I can be happy if I don’t kiss you  _again_.”

Jared grinned, but stayed where he was.

“Well, I probably need time to process the optimal way for us to move forward romantically and come up with strategies to present it to the rest of the company, but I would not have a problem doing that again.”

Richard rubbed his hand over his face to hide his face-splitting grin, because it was probably creepy as fuck, but what else could he do? 

“Yeah, Jared, I get it. Take your time, because I want you to be happy and feel safe and all that stuff. But, uh, do you think I could, uh, have one more? For the road?”

Jared smiled, unbuckled his seatbelt and leaned forward. “I think that would be just fine.”


End file.
